Patricia Ricks was in bed at 7 a.m. Sunday morning when she heard pounding on her door.

"People were banging on my door, yelling 'You gotta get out of there,'" Ricks said.

Firefighters work the scene of of an apartment fire at Stoneybrook Apartment complex in Claymont, ...more

Firefighters work the scene of of an apartment fire at Stoneybrook Apartment complex in Claymont, Del.

Submitted photo

She went to wake up her 16- and 4-year-old daughters. Ricks said all three of them fled still in their pajamas

"When you got to the front door, you could smell it," Zenya Ricks, 16, said.

A total of six townhouses were damaged in a Claymont fire in Stoneybrook Apartments. There were no reported injuries in the fire that was declared under control by 8:40 a.m. Sunday, according to the Claymont Fire Company.

Firefighters arrived to find fire in the back of a two-story townhome situated in the middle of a row of homes. The fire extended to the attics of two units and did significant damage, according to the Claymont Fire Company. Two other townhomes sustained minor damage. It took nearly an hour to put out the fire that charred the homes.

Eighteen people, 10 of them children, had to find emergency housing, said Assistant State Fire Marshal Michael Chionchio.

Investigators said the fire originated in the backyard when charcoal briquettes ignited vinyl siding on the home. The briquettes had been left over by grilling on Saturday, Chionchio said.

The American Red Cross has provided gift cards for the families to redeem at hotels or motels while they recuperate, Chionchio said.

The fire is estimated to have caused $250,000 in damage, he said.

A fire rages as seen from a nearby apartment at Stoneybrook Apartment complex in Claymont, Del.

A fire rages as seen from a nearby apartment at Stoneybrook Apartment complex in Claymont, Del.

Submitted photo

RestoreCore, a disaster clean up crew, was securing tarps over the homes Sunday afternoon in preparation for the rain.

Ricks said seeing a fire on TV and being at one aren't comparable.

"I always thought that I would grab this or that in the moment, but when you have a split second, you just have to run out of the house," Ricks said. "You don't know what you would do in the situation until it happens."

Had the fire not been put under control, Ricks' townhome would have been the next in the connected townhomes to burn.

"Those homes are gutted. I am still shaken," Ricks said. "I was a wind gust away from losing everything."

Neighbors stood outside and watched flames billow from the houses. Ricks was praying that her house did not catch ablaze.

"I was the next house. If the wind had changed direction in the slightest, I wouldn't be in this house right now," she said.

She and other residents stayed outside for nearly two hours.

A fire rages as seen from a nearby apartment at Stoneybrook Apartment complex in Claymont, Del.

A fire rages as seen from a nearby apartment at Stoneybrook Apartment complex in Claymont, Del.

Submitted photo

Ricks said she normally is at work at the time the fire occurred and can only imagine what would happen if she wasn't home.

"My two girls would still be asleep. Who would have woke them up," she said. "I am going to go to church and bible study every day this week."

Neighbors said they have been shaken up by it.

Ricks called to get renter's insurance and hopes the affected families already had it.

One resident, who declined to give his name, said people in the area have been talking about the fire, and he said he couldn't believe how quickly the fire spread.

"I heard all this noise outside, and then there was smoke everywhere," he said. "Those families are displaced. They lost everything. The houses are gutted. They can't salvage anything."

Ricks said she is fortunate firefighters got there when they did to stop the fire from spreading.

"I started today thinking I was going to lose everything I have worked hard to get," Ricks said. "I am just so grateful, and I want to help my neighbors in any way I can."